This is what we have to work with today. Hopefully we finish in time.

We have to add more supports on wednesday and them hopefully it will be finished.

This is our progress tomorrow, and it should be done by tomorrow.

Our progress on day 4. We hope to connect the top part tomorrow.

This is our progress on day 3.

For Science class, we have to make a toothpick bridge. This is our progress so far.

God has prepared Paul for his missionary journey’s in many different ways. Paul knew the scriptures and torah because he used to be a Pharisee, and he had a good education which provided him with intelligence, and speaking many different languages. All of these things that God prepared Saul with helped him teach other people about God’s kingdom. God has given each of us many different talents and put us in situations so that in the end, it will help us share God’s story and kingdom. Some of the gifts that God has given to me is my love for special needs kids. This winter, we had a unified basketball team for these kids that normally would not have a chance to play, and I was a part of it and it filled my heart with joy. Knowing that I can have a huge impact on these kids makes me happy and helps me improve my relationships with them. Another talent God has given me is creativity. I love to draw, paint, and explore different ways to use my imagination. I can use this gift to glorify God. God has also put me in a community where worshipping him is not “a crime.” I believe that God put me in this school so I can learn more about him, and share to the people that have not had the chance to hear his story and how he forgave us from our sins. God has placed me in this life to worship and glorify him, and bring others closer to him too. Knowing that God made us each differently, I am forever thankful for the gifts he has given me to bring his kingdom closer to this earth.

For science class, we had to make a volcano that was a replicate of one in real life. We chose the volcano Mount Fuji, which is a composite volcano. `We used PVC pipe for the pipe and the side vent. We did paper mache for the outside and painted it. We did the layers of ash cinders and bombs and lava inside of the volcano to show how it forms. We used steel wool for smoke and for the pyroclastic flow. The people in my group were Matthew, Lauren, and Jack.

In Bible class, we have been learning about Christian Persecution around the world. For class, we made many projects about it. The people in my group were Jaclyn and Alliya, and we were assigned the country Uzbekistan. We many posters and many different things for our exhibit. The link down below is the one for our video that we displayed at our table.

https://goanimate.com/videos/0VyaKq0J-MOM

Nicole DeVries

Mrs. Roskamp

LA, 8B

17 February 2017

Death Struck Three Times

I have traveled to every country in the world. I have capsized ships in the middle of the ocean. In a war, I am thick in the air taking as many bodies with me as I can. When the bombs hit the ground, souls float up into the air as thousands. I grab the elderly and carry them into my home. On rare occasions, I go and kidnap children that accidently jump in front of a car. I’m not saying I enjoy my job, but that is the way it is. And there was no way out of it. But today, I had the privilege to walk straight into the palace of England and take the soul of the beloved Queen. I worked through a person and controlled them as they pulled the trigger that ended the Queen’s pathetic life.

The King sobbed silently in a chair near the crime scene. The Sheriff was using his magnifying glass to inspect the suspicious black, short hair on the corpse. The chef was silently walking around giving people his fresh cookies to cheer them up, but avoided the corner where the butler was staring at the princess. Over the times I have travelled around listening to different rumors around the town, and I heard that the butler is madly in love with the blonde princess. He slicked his twirly black mustache in his fingers, while having a sly grin on his face. The prince was not looking devastated at all. He laughed along with the servant, who had dark brown hair which was usually up in a bun. Well, it was more laughing at her while she tried to control her clumsiness. She stumbled around the room, and was very antsy.  The buzz of the escaped prisoner was barely even being discussed, even though he was found guilty of murdering 4 people. He mysteriously disappeared the night before the tragic death which caused many suspicions. He was a 40 year old man with black scruffy hair, and he looked pale in the bright orange jumpsuits that were mandatory to wear in the castle prison.

This is how it went. The following people heard the Butlers shriek and they all went running. I stayed to watch the show of panic. Everyone piled into the room to see what could have caused that terrified noise. The King’s face dropped. The Sheriff’s face showed interest. The chef looked very worried. The Butler had a smirk on his face. The Princess hasn’t moved a muscle, and her face was just as tight as normal with her nose stuck up. The prince barely even noticed because he was too busy fixing his hair. The servant’s face went as pale as a ghost and she started to fidget.

The butler stood at least 10 feet away from the body of the Queen, still staring at it. To me, he looked almost delighted. But, when I look into his mind I see sick, twisted, cruel thoughts on every level. There was a gun in the corner of the room, which must have been used for the crime. The Sheriff walked up first and started checking the area. The Queen’s face was struck in a pose of pure horror and fright. Her body was twisted on the floor in an unrealistic way. An orange thread was laying on the floor. One arm was behind her back above her head, with her legs sprawled out. Her blonde hair hung loosely around her shoulders and there was drool coming out of the corner of her mouth. But one thing he noticed was the long, dark brown hair near her feet. There was also three pieces of short black hair near it. He then walked over to the gun. He picked up the gun and pronounced,

“This is my gun that went missing, and there is only one bullet gone!”

And with that statement, I flashed inside of his brain and could see what he was thinking. He was afraid that people would think that he was the murderer because his gun was in the room. He was using every ounce of his brainpower to sort through the clues to figure out who did it, before he was accused. Then the princess spoke up.

“Well, what are you going to do about it?”

She was thinking about the butler. She thought about how handsome he looked in that dark jacket with his hair slicked back. She also was quite nervous and hesitant, and seemed very anxious about the whole situation. She also was thinking about how since her mother was dead, she would be crowned Queen way sooner than if she was alive. Her eyes kept on darting to the servant who stood in shock nearby. The servant was thinking about how much she would rather be out of this room with nothing to do with it. She felt incredibly guilty, and thought about her family and what would happen if she was accused and sent away and could not send money to them. That left us with the chef who started sniffing to see if his dinner was burning in the oven. He suddenly felt fatigue, and left quickly without a word to check on the food and also settle down.

The only sound in the castle was the king sobbing in the corner of the room. In his thoughts was devastation, grief, and unbelief. But there was also a little bit of hope left in there, for now his wife wouldn’t be yelling at him for things that he was innocent to. The quietness was interrupted by the butler, who cleared his throat.

“Well, I don’t see the point of just sitting around here staring at a dead body. I will escort the princess back to her room so she can get a good night’s rest. I will ask the servant to accompany us.”

They left right away, with the relieved thoughts of each of them to get away from the crime scene. The butler especially was worried about what was going to happen next. The prince was still sitting in the chair looking quite bored. And, in fact, he was bored. He would rather have gone out riding his horse or practicing archery. But, now since his Mother was dead, he would have more freedom around the castle to do whatever he wishes.

I then decided that I would take one more victim from this opportunity to cause more disruption in the country than ever. That night, I took the King and the Queen. Everyone turned their heads as the King dropped to the ground with his eyes rolled back into his skull, foaming at the mouth. But it was too late, he was mine now.

This was the time when everyone started panicking. Every mind I crept into had gallons of confusion in them. All together, it was quite chaotic. Chairs were being overturned, screams were being heard. The racket brought the chef back into the room, but with a tray of fresh bread. But suddenly, all of the heads were turned as the butler and the princess returned into the room, with scratches across their faces. The princess opened her mouth to speak in between breaths.

“Help, the killer just attacked us and is on the run!”

But it was too late. A click sound came from the corner of the room where the sheriff left his stolen gun. Hands went up, level with their ears as a sign of surrender. The servant stood shaking, leaning so far over but still on her feet. Her eyes and mind showed fear of what these people had done to her. She finally found the ounce of courage in her to speak.

“The prince and the butler hired me to kill the Queen. They wanted her dead because the Queen never would have allowed them to get married if she was alive. The princess also wanted to become Queen sooner, and take over the country for more power. They have destroyed my sanity in every way possible, which is why I am standing with this gun right here, right now. I do not care what you have to say, but if you say one word, it will be your last one.”

Everyone stood as silent as possible, but now staring at the princess and the butler. They both sprinted out of the doors, probably heading for the woods. The sheriff started running after them, when suddenly a greasy man in an orange jumpsuit jumped in front of him, holding two guns instead of one. But he wasn’t pointing them at the sheriff or the rest of the others, he had them pointing straight at the servant.

She was the third person I took that day. Once the bullet reached that vital organ on the left side of her chest, it was obvious she was a goner. Her body fell lifelessly to the ground, and her soul rose up into the air for me to take. After the prisoner shot her, he sat down on the ground and started weeping. He talked in between sobs.

“The butler took me out of the prison, saying that I was being released early. I gratefully took the opportunity to leave and start my life over. But once I started walking through the town, people looked at me. After an incident with the police chasing after me saying how I’d escaped, I knew something was wrong. I ran and ran until they could not chase me any longer. I stopped by the side of a river, concealed by the bushes. But I heard a voice, and it was the butler on the phone with (im assuming) the princess. He told her the whole plan, how he released me and took false clues from my clothes and my hair to set up. He said how the servant had agreed to complete the task, and how now they can become King and Queen and rule over the land. I knew that I did not want to spend the rest of my life as a fugitive, so I started my journey back to the castle. I just decided to come in here now, but when I heard the words tumbling out of that idiotic servant I knew I had to act quickly before everyone was dead. I took down two guards and got both of their guns. I never wanted to kill anyone, but the adrenaline of saving others was running too much through my body.”

Since everyone else was losing their patience, they accepted his innocence in the whole thing. The sheriff put the prisoner in handcuffs to be sent back down to the dungeons. As everyone else filed through the door, the prince propped it open with his foot. No one noticed the slight grin on his face, for his scheme of threatening everyone else to do the dirty work had gone according to plan. And the thought of his sister running through the dark forest brought a chuckle to his lips. And me, known as the character Death, knew that no one would catch him, leaving me to deal with him in the end.

This is me and my groups spaghetti tower. The people in my group were Jaclyn and Jazlynn. I enjoyed working with this group a lot and we got along well. Overall,  I think our tower has a great design and was made very carefully with thinking.We used the spaghetti sticks as crosses to keep the structure firm and sturdy. We had the bottom of it come closer together at the top to produce strength. I enjoyed this project a lot and thought it was very fun with my group members. I think (and hope) that our tower will succeed and will keep the egg from falling off or the tower breaking.

5 celebraciones de Guatemala:

-Año nuevo

-Semana Santa

-Dia de trabajo

-Dia de la independencia

-Navidad

Las personas celebrando muchas fiestas. Los decoraciones de las fiestas en Guatemala es muy bonita. Yo estoy queriendo visitando Guatemala en Navidad. Yo traigo mis amigas también.   Las personas bailando en mucho.

I am a tree. A tree has many different parts to it, like the roots, trunk, branches, and leaves. In my life, the leaves are my interests and hobbies. After a while, my tree will get more leaves. During certain parts of the year, leaves are either green and vibrant, or they turn red, orange, and brown and drop to the ground. My hobbies are the same way. Sometimes they are out and on my tree, and sometimes they float away. For example, I love to play soccer. But when winter comes, my soccer leaf drops, and grows back later in the year. Some of my hobbies are like the needles on a pine tree. They stay on there all year round, always providing me with entertainment.

The branches on a tree are my talents. They connect to my hobbies which are the leaves, because my talents and what I like to do are connected. The branches on a tree are also connected to the trunk, which is my faith. I can use my talents to grow God’s kingdom and bring him more into the world. As I get older, the branches on the tree start to grow. As I start to improve, my talents grow out and get better. Some of my talents are long, and some are short. Some sprout off of other talents. The branches that are torn off from other people and storms are the talents I forget about. When the people tear them off, it’s like when they discourage or critize me to do the things I was made for.

The trunk is my faith. It is the base of my life. Through all the storms, it is the part of the tree that holds me together. It is the main source for all of my talents and hobbies, because God gifted me with those. But when you look closer, and tear away the bark, you can see little ruts where termites have eaten away at. Those are my sins. They eat away at my faith. If you remove all of the termites, like when Jesus died on the cross, there will still be marks from my past and the bad things that have happened to me. But Jesus is the bark that grows over it, making me pure once again.

The roots are my family and friends. It connects to my faith because those people build me up on my relationship with God. Each friend or family member is one root, and some of them connect to each other for different sides of the family, or different friend groups. Some of them keep on growing, like those who stick with me for my whole life. The small roots are the people that impact me in small ways.  The bigger roots represent those super close to me. My parents, my brother, and some of my friends are some of those. The roots that are disconnected or dug out of the ground are the friends or family members that are removed from my life. I can use myself as a tree to be God’s hands and feet, bringing his kingdom further into earth.

Nicole DeVries

Mrs. Roskamp

LA, 8B

19, October 2016

Thematic Writing

I recently have read the book My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult. This book was about a family called the Fitzgeralds. Every family has flaws, and this one went through a lot. Sara and Brian Fitzgerald had two children, the first is a boy named Jesse, and the second is a girl named Kate. When Kate was a young toddler she was diagnosed with a form of Leukemia. Sara and Brian then decided to do a preimplantation genetic diagnosis to create their third child, Anna. She was made as a donor for her sister, so she would have the same bone marrow and blood cells match. When Anna turns 13, she is asked to donate a kidney to her sister. Things happen, and soon the family finds themselves in court, against their daughter. Reading this book, I realized that you would do anything for those you love.

This book was full of problems from the very beginning. The main conflict of the story was Kate having the cancer in her body. It lead for the family to be hurt and stressed, which caused them to spread apart. I see the theme in this because they went through so much to keep one member of their family, and sometimes helping is not enough. It caused Anna to be born, and that is one thing that causes positivity towards this complication. Anna is a key part of the family, even when she is not needed medically. Anna feels like she was only made for her sister, and she wants to be her own person and show that she is more than just a kid. But throughout this whole story, is that really what she feels?

Another problem was that this Family is falling apart, only strung together by Kate’s medical health. Sara and Brian’s relationship is only about Kate, and the only thing they can talk about normally is Kate’s hospital appointments, and things that relate to her. The oldest child, Jesse, is a huge troublemaker and has got himself into drugs, alcohol, and shoplifting. For fun, he burns old sheds down using gas, and other explosive things. The parents gave up on him, for their mission is the keep every child alive, and a little trouble is the least of their worries. They pay the most attention to their middle child, and the youngest feels unuseful and feels like she was only made for the sake of her sister. I see the theme in this problem because in the end of the book, all of the broken pieces fit back together and they start to understand each other more.  Nothing is the same with any of them anymore, and in the end of the story a piece of them is gone forever.

Reading this book, I realized that you would do anything for those you love. Overall, this book was very good and it always kept me at a cliffhanger. The lesson taught in this book is extremely valuable, and although it was really sad and dramatic I enjoyed the story and it is now one of my favorite books. I think that the family went through a lot of trauma and how the story turned out at the end was a huge turner in the plot. I would definitely recommend this book to other readers because it is an interesting book and I learned many things.

These pictures are Me and Colin’s chain for science class. We were given a certain amount of resources for this project, and we had to make a chain to hold certain amounts of water in pop bottles. Colin and I used pipe cleaners and straws. We cut the pipe cleaners in half in the straws in little pieces, and we connected them together in hoops. Over all, ours works very well and can hold all of the bottles.